ACE Spotlights

Advocates for Community Engagement (ACEs) are liaisons between service-learning students, faculty and local agencies/organizations. Each ACE works at a specific local agency as a service-learning coordinator, providing a link between faculty, students, and community partner agencies. ACEs orient, train and schedule IUB service-learners and help these students reflect on the connections between their coursework, service and larger social issues. Undergraduate students enter the ACE program as freshmen who are recipients of Cox Engagement Scholarships.

Augusta Hasse has worked with Templeton Elementary for two years, coordinating service-learning programs, activities, and reflections for the IU service-learning students. Dietetics in Service-LearningMay 2012

Donna Eder is especially grateful that this type of engagement is now part of her professional life as service-learning allows her to connect her academic pursuits to the community in which she lives. Holistic Education in Service-LearningMay 2012

Emily Metzgar, a professor in the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism, teaches one of the few service-learning classes available to graduate students, a course called “Media & Society.” She started conceiving of the design of the course almost immediately upon coming to Indiana University three years ago. “Media & Society”May 2012

Oren Pizmony-Levy, professor of Sociology 110, knows many prospective students would see his course titled “Charts, Graphs, and Tables" and expect the course to be “boring, boring, boring.” And while Pizmony-Levy couldn’t do anything to dress up the course title, he made sure the course itself wasn’t boring at all. Sparking Interest in the ClassroomMay 2012

Gwyn Vicars has helped Stone Belt, a service provider for individuals with developmental disabilities in south central Indiana, evolve significantly since she began serving there as an ACE. Restructuring Service-Learning at Stone BeltMay 2012

Sabrina Williamson designed a course called “Poverty in the United States” to give students first-hand knowledge of many of the issues discussed in her class, as well as to show students that there are more sides to Bloomington than its university campus. The Challenges of Service-LearningMay 2012